Off-court troubles overwhelmed Griffin's big talent

Eddie Griffin spent the last three of his five NBA seasons with the Timberwolves, mixing flashes of superb play with inconsistency. Icon SMI

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A toxicology report in the coming days might provide some answers. The emergency workers at the scene and some people in the Harris County (Texas) medical examiner's office surely have their theories.

But no one, maybe not even Eddie Griffin himself, could have explained his actions last week, when a moving freight train, behind crossing gates, thundered in front of his Nissan SUV about 1:30 Friday morning in southeast Houston. In an instant when Griffin simply should have just stopped and waited, he stepped on the gas.

Eddie Jamal Griffin was his own worst enemy, even if he was nobody else's. A troubled young man whose alcohol addiction overran his athletic ability, Griffin never reached the potential his vast basketball skills made available to him through one year at Seton Hall and five pockmarked seasons in the NBA. He died at age 25, his vehicle bursting into flames upon impact with the freight car and Griffin's body burned so badly that investigators needed five days and a set of dental records to identify him.

Griffin, the seventh pick in the 2001 draft, passed through the organizations in Houston, New Jersey and Minnesota, his career jeopardized by celebrated off-court incidents at each stop. There always was some collateral damage but, in the end, Griffin's demons were almost all self-directed.

"He was a guy who nobody could really get close to,'' said former Timberwolves coach Dwane Casey, who worked with Griffin for 1½ seasons. "You wonder if you failed the kid. All the [trouble] signs were there.

"I tried, from a personal standpoint even more than a basketball standpoint, to get through to him. Maybe we should have been trying to get him more help.''

By the time Griffin reached Minneapolis in 2004, he was toting a steamer trunk of turmoil: fights with teammates in high school and college, a brother's death, a shooting incident while with the Rockets, an arrest at a New Jersey hotel while property of the Nets (he never played for them). Still, the Wolves, Griffin himself and some people he trusted -- like former NBA head coach and addictions counselor John Lucas -- felt they had the knowledge to beat back his problems.

The Wolves cleared a locker right next to Kevin Garnett, the team's ostensible leader and a player who had experienced some of Griffin's growing pains as an NBA teenager. They had veteran guard Sam Cassell on board -- Cassell had grown close to Griffin during offseasons in Houston -- and one of the young player's friends, Cedric Howard, moved to the Twin Cities to help Griffin navigate whatever obstacles arose.

For that season, it all worked well. Griffin grabbed 18 rebounds in a game against Portland, blocked seven shots a week later against Detroit and, back home in Philadelphia, scored 27 points with 11 boards, hitting seven of his 15 three-point attempts.

He averaged 7.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 21.3 minutes in 2004-05, earning a three-year, $8.1 million deal from the Wolves. One problem: His agent negotiated the contract while Griffin was serving a 15-day jail term in Houston for violating probation from a 2003 assault case.

His second season in Minnesota was spottier, the 6-foot-10 Griffin's ability to change games on defense showing up more like a tease of what could be. He ranked 10th in the NBA in blocked shots, but his scoring (4.6 ppg) and rebounding (5.6 rpg) tailed off, and of the 82 three-point shots he launched, he missed 66. Word leaked out that Griffin was, in fact, near-sighted. But he had stopped wearing contact lenses because of discomfort and never had the laser eye surgery the medical staff recommended.

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